Extensional………Musings

Yet another draft that has hung around since September, having put in so much work, I fully intend to share it!

I don’t know how much this topic relates to seniors, but if I am to stick with my initial premise that we all want to remain relevant in this world, there should be no age limit on questions for the universe. I am a great believer in timing in life or the lack of it. How some tiny action taken impulsively or a poor choice can impact our whole life or in some cases our death.

Two totally unrelated incidents in the media for the last few weeks have made me, once again, question how fine the line between life and death, success and failure. The first being the tragic and unnecessary death of Joan Rivers, the other being the Ray Rice debacle.

What could these two totally unrelated incidents have in common? Both are split second events that changed lives forever. In Joan Rivers case, it will soon be known if the surgical center was somehow negligent or was it just a random occurrence that happens rarely in an outpatient setting. How many of us have had some type of procedure in these centers and come out just fine, I know I have. It is almost surreal that a person who’d seemingly sailed through many, many far more serious surgeries, suddenly succumb to what is usually a very routine procedure. I know if it were my Mother, I’d want to ask someone for a do over. This has to be some cosmic mistake and if we can just go back a few weeks and check into Mt. Sinai for the endoscopy every thing will return to normal. But, we know that is not how life works and accidents happen everyday, it is just that this happened to all of us.

In the case of Ray Rice, how badly would he like to re-think the punch seen around the world. Believe me I totally abhor spousal abuse, there is never any justification for it. I hope that every bullying husband or boyfriend or wife for that matter sees the consequences of Mr. Rice’s action not only to himself but to his wife and child and the entire NFL.

His obviously uncontrollable temper and sense of entitlement has cost him dearly. Cost his family dearly, changing their lifestyle perhaps forever in one split second in that elevator. Put a strain on what was probably a tenuous relationship, which will impact on his child’s life forever. It may very well cost Roger Goodall his job and impact the league because of what was clearly a cover up.

I am also reminded of the gorgeous and talented Natasha Richardson, who decided her head didn’t really hurt and turned away the paramedics who came to the lodge and wanted so badly to take her to the hospital after her skiing accident, but she was sure it was nothing and didn’t want to make a fuss. How different would the lives of her family be now.

The connection to be made for the rest of us is that we make stupid decision in the blink of an eye, that may never be seen or felt by anyone. It is these very public, random acts of fate, the wrong place at the wrong time, should teach is to think through our choices more carefully.

We so want to say, “come on Joan, you’ve had ten or twenty surgeries in the hospital,don”t fail us on this one, have the f…ing procedure at Mount Sinai”. To Ray,“how about you just stop speaking to Janay for a week,” like every other husband in America. And to Natasha,“listen we know your head feels better, but go with the nice ambulance drivers and get it checked out”.